


Worries Go Down

by idyll



Category: Covert Affairs
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Canon Jewish Character, Multi, Polyamory, Threesome - F/M/M, tactile languages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-29
Updated: 2013-03-29
Packaged: 2017-12-06 20:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idyll/pseuds/idyll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“And how are your guys?”</p><p>“They’re randomly shirtless in the kitchen,” Annie says to Danielle by way of an answer. “Take from that what you will.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worries Go Down

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Andromed-Reinvented](andromeda-reinvented.tumblr.com) on Tumblr.

Annie holds the phone between her chin and shoulder and skims a layer of foam out of the stock pot on the burner. “Did you take plenty of pictures?”

“Only about a million or so,” Danielle says. “I put them up on the sky drive.” She pauses. It’s the kind of pause that’s become commonplace since Danielle found out what Annie does for a living. “How’s…work? Is everything…okay?”

The pauses come up in sentences, as well. It’s better than lies, or Annie being exiled from Danielle’s life. Better even than the frantic explicit demands for information Danielle made just after she found out, too.

“Work’s fine,” Annie says. The words themselves are bland; it’s all in the tone.

Annie can hear the smile when Danielle says, “I’m glad.” There’s another pause, but this one is more anticipatory than hesitant. “And how are your guys?”

Annie’s gaze automatically goes across the room. Auggie and Eyal are sitting facing each other at the same side of the table. They’re both shirtless—Annie’s not sure when that happened; both of them were fully clothed last she looked—and their legs are tangled together. Auggie’s head is cocked in Eyal’s direction. Eyal is talking, his face open and genuine, but there are dark circles under his eyes and a pallor to his skin.

“They’re randomly shirtless in the kitchen,” Annie says to Danielle by way of an answer. “Take from that what you will.”

Auggie and Eyal look over briefly and smirk.

Danielle laughs. “Which begs the question: are _you_ shirtless in the kitchen?”

“That’s generally advised against when cooking.”

Auggie and Eyal reach for one another almost at the same time. Auggie slides a hand around Eyal’s torso, to the small of his back. Eyal rests his hand, palm down, on top of Auggie’s thigh.

Annie watches Eyal’s fingers, sees the way they tap and stroke, and knows that Auggie can easily feel it through the light sleep pants he’s wearing. There’s a pattern to the motions. Annie’s eyes narrow and her focus pulls back to try to fit context to the movements.

“—attention, Annie?”

Annie blinks. “Huh?”

“Stop spying on us, and talk to your sister,” Auggie calls out. Eyal laughs and shifts his hand to the side of Auggie’s leg, out of Annie’s view.

Annie grins, wide and unrepentant, at the guys. “Sorry, Danielle. Got distracted.”

“Well, I can’t fault you for that. I’m married and on the other side of the country, and _I’m_ distracted by the thought of your kitchen right now.”

Annie turns back to the stove and, after checking the progress in the stock pot, begins reaching for ingredients. She chats with Danielle as she adds celery, cilantro, carrots, onion, tomato and garlic. Then she opens the container with the Hawaj spice mixture she made earlier—Auggie leveraged a favor to get an asset’s family recipe, and it’d been a big one because Hawaj recipes are as closely guarded as top secret information.

She stirs the freshly ground spices into the pot, adds some more water, and turns the heat up slightly just as Danielle says she has to go.

“Love you!” Annie and Danielle say together.

Annie goes to the table and slides onto Eyal’s lap, careful not to jar the hand he has on Auggie’s thigh, even though she knows he would have stilled his movements as she approached.

Eyal tips his face up to her; his eyes are glinting wickedly. “If only your sister knew you were pantsless in the kitchen.”

“Walker, you’re a minx,” Auggie says. He reaches out and feels his way from Annie’s hip to her legs, bare from mid-thigh down, since the shirt she stole from Eyal’s suitcase only comes down that far on her. He lifts them to his own lap, and Annie and Eyal automatically to accommodate the change in position.

Annie plays with the fine hair at the base of Eyal’s skull and flexes her toes against Auggie’s abdomen. She concentrates, fingers and toes moving somewhat simultaneously, and the guys laugh. They let her finish laboriously signing out a tactile question, then shake their heads.

“What have we told you, Annie?” Eyal says. He pinches her side lightly. “Let us have this.”

Annie’s mouth twists and she widens her eyes hopefully. “But what if we’re in a situation where I need to communicate with one of you without speaking?”

Auggie slides his hand up and down her calf. “You’re obviously familiar with some sort of grade school level Braille signing.”

Annie huffs out an exaggeratedly disappointed sigh, but winks at Eyal and tickles Auggie’s ribs with her foot.

She knew it wouldn’t be that simple, just like it wasn’t as simple as the Lorm touch alphabet, or basic tracing. And, honestly, her trying to figure out their tactile language is nothing more than a game, as is the guys taunting her with random glimpses of it in action.

Guessing would be impossible, anyway. This is Auggie and Eyal she’s talking about, and both of them are too smart and paranoid to use anything standardized. Annie knows they’ve probably created something unique to them, with roots in a few different methods.

Eyal stifles a yawn behind his hand.

Annie’s foot tenses on Auggie’s leg, and he squeezes it reassuringly. “How long until that soup’s done?” he asks.

“A few hours.” She leans her cheek on top of Eyal’s head. “You thinking what I’m thinking, Auggie?”

Auggie nudges her legs from his lap and stands, setting a hand on the table to orient himself. “Are you thinking we should indulge in a nap?”

“It’s like you can read my mind,” Annie says.

Eyal protests, but it’s half-hearted, and Auggie and Annie herd him out of the kitchen.

When Annie moved back home once she got over the Simon trauma, she moved into the main house. There was no reason not to, and now that she’s with Eyal and Auggie, she’s glad for the extra space. Especially in the bedroom, where she splurged on a massive king sized platform bed.

Auggie leads the way, so familiar with the house that he doesn’t even need his cane to navigate it, and once they get to the bedroom, he and Annie draw Eyal in between them on the bed.

They rarely know the details of what’s happened to Eyal on missions, and this time is no exception. But they don’t need those details to know it was bad—Annie can see it in his face, and Auggie can hear it in his voice. They both feel it in the minute twitches and jerks that wrack his body in sleep.

Annie would wonder if what they do for a living is worth it, but all she has to do is turn her head to either side to know the answer to that.

*

Four hours later, Annie dishes out bowls of Yemenite bone soup and takes it into the living room. She hands them out to Auggie and Eyal, then joins them on the sofa.

Auggie has already set up the DVD player and the title screen for _Sh’Chur_ is playing. Eyal hits play and then takes a sip of the soup. He gives Annie a started but pleased look. “This is exceptionally good, Annie.”

She arches her brows and grins. “As good as your mother’s?”

He clicks his tongue. “That question’s practically blasphemy. Bite your tongue.”

Auggie and Annie laugh and dig into their own bowls. The movie plays—Hebrew without subtitles—and Annie takes care of providing an audio description for Auggie since there wasn’t an option for that on the DVD. With each passing minute of film, and each spoonful of soup, Eyal seems to settle into his skin a little more. The weariness that stems from something other than a lack of sleep fades enough that Annie is no longer tense with concern for him. On Eyal’s other side, Auggie makes a small, pleased sound.

“Thank you both,” Eyal says during a lull in the film. His voice is clear and steady in the darkened room.

Annie squeezes his hand and Auggie clasps the back of his neck. “Anytime.”

.End

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the Jewish proverb, “Worries go down better with soup.”


End file.
